Todd Bishop

The long-rumored $50 price cut for the 20-gigabyte Xbox 360 model is actually a clearance sale, designed to make room on shelves for a replacement Xbox 360 with three times the storage, at the same price as before.
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Despite the presence of some major players, nothing of consequence has emerged on the Yahoo-Microsoft front at the high-powered Allen & Co. conference this week in Sun Valley, Idaho. At least not that we know about. But that hasn’t kept all the reporters and other executives there from watching and guessing about the interactions.
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How will Microsoft address the perception that it’s not as cool as Apple or Google? That, in essence, was one of the questions posed to Steve Ballmer today during the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston. In an on-stage Q&A, the Microsoft chief executive said that it’s more a question of whether Microsoft can surprise people.
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Ana Judeh, owner of Modern Mia Spa & Salon in Redmond, sees a lot of good stuff in Windows Vista — which makes sense, considering that Judeh and her salon are the subject of a new Microsoft case study and a full-page ad that the company has been running for the operating system in major newspapers this week. But that’s not the whole story.
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Microsoft appears poised to lower the price of its Xbox 360 Pro console (the 20 GB model) by $50, to $299.99, as early as this weekend, according to a leaked retail document posted by Engadget. Such a move would confirm earlier reports that the company would be cutting the price in advance of next week’s E3 video-game convention in Los Angeles.
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This should be interesting: Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, is slated to be one of the witnesses next Tuesday at a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on “The Google-Yahoo Agreement and the Future of Internet Advertising.” No word yet on the other witnesses.
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Paul Maritz, the former Microsoft group vice president, will be dealing with his own challenges as the new chief executive of VMware Inc. But he also has insight into the challenges facing Microsoft, which is increasingly competing with VMware in the market for virtualization technology.
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Microsoft’s new offer of free Windows Vista support for small businesses shows how the company is trying to reshape public opinion of the operating system. In talking about the offer, Microsoft acknowledges Windows Vista’s negative image — but says it’s no longer justified.
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More than five months after Microsoft launched its unsolicited bid to acquire Yahoo, the high-stakes corporate saga has delivered enough plot twists to fill a novel. And it’s not over yet, with reports last week that Microsoft is trying, again, to strike a deal for Yahoo’s search business.
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